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Author Topic: Comb Problems  (Read 5381 times)

Offline tucker0065

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Comb Problems
« on: May 02, 2008, 01:01:18 am »
Hey guys I'm not sure if this is a good place to ask but thought i should try. I installed my package bees 3 weeks ago and all seemed well until I inspected the hive today. My bees have been acting strange and I found A queen cell w/ a half developed queen, yet my queen was still alive and well. She is  still laying eggs so idk why there rearing a new one.Also the cells are all uneven and have weird domes over them(see pic) any advice or explanations are appreciated -thank you tucker(okay mabye no pic i cant figure out how to post it )

-Tucker-

Offline doak

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Re: Comb Problems
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2008, 03:08:29 am »
Drone cells will be vertical when located in the comb along with the worker cells. They will not be as big and isolated like a queen cell. If you don't have any capped cells that "doesn't have the dome" which is worker cells, then you have a drone  laying queen. If you had laying workers they most times don't build queen cells because the bees think they are queen right.

They may be trying to replace the queen that came with them. Some time this happens.
Was the queen cell on the bottom of the frame or up on the side?
How crowded are they?
Hope this helps.doak

Offline Scadsobees

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Re: Comb Problems
« Reply #2 on: May 02, 2008, 09:38:22 am »
Quote
Also the cells are all uneven and have weird domes over them

Quote
A queen cell w/ a half developed queen, yet my queen was still alive and well

Hmm...the picture would be worth a thousand words, but that can't be helped :)

If ALL of the cells are uneven and weird domes, then you may very well have a poorly mated (or unmated) queen.  A queen cell may be an attempt at supercedure, which is good if that egg was fertilized, but if not....

See if you can get some pictures up here, and if that is the case then you probably need to get a new queen, I would think that the package provider would give one to you since the one they provided was bad.

Rick
Rick

Offline tucker0065

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Re: Comb Problems
« Reply #3 on: May 02, 2008, 02:58:13 pm »
My avitar is the pic and also they replased my queen once since she wasn't laying. So the new one seemed good but I think that about half the cells are for drones. I will have to wait and see what happens but i took the queen cell out(hope that was the right thing to do) also they are not crowded at all and the queen cell was twards the top of a frame in the middle.
-Tucker-

Offline tucker0065

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Re: Comb Problems
« Reply #4 on: May 04, 2008, 11:47:19 pm »
ok so i think i could have a bad queen who wasn't mated propery. The problem is i installed my package a month ago, all my bees are getting old. Will i have enough time now to get the colony started w/ a new queen.
-Tucker-

Offline JP

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Re: Comb Problems
« Reply #5 on: May 04, 2008, 11:52:48 pm »
My avitar is the pic and also they replased my queen once since she wasn't laying. So the new one seemed good but I think that about half the cells are for drones. I will have to wait and see what happens but i took the queen cell out(hope that was the right thing to do) also they are not crowded at all and the queen cell was twards the top of a frame in the middle.

In your avitar I see drone cells and a queen cell on the right. A queen cell midway would be a supercedure cell that should not be replaced.

I'm a lil confused, you do or don't have a queen now?

If so, and they want to replace her, let them.


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Offline tucker0065

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Re: Comb Problems
« Reply #6 on: May 05, 2008, 01:26:31 am »
Yes i have a queen now.  and the thing is i don't think i have time to let them raise there own queen as they have been installed for 30 days or so.Will the bees be ok that long without an new bees? I believe that the queen is only laying drones and no workers. Any advice?
-Tucker-

Offline JP

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Re: Comb Problems
« Reply #7 on: May 05, 2008, 05:34:09 am »
Yes i have a queen now.  and the thing is i don't think i have time to let them raise there own queen as they have been installed for 30 days or so.Will the bees be ok that long without an new bees? I believe that the queen is only laying drones and no workers. Any advice?

Do you have any other hives you could take a frame or two of brood comb from?
If she is a drone layer and you don't have any other resources to pull from then yes you will need a replacement queen.


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Offline tucker0065

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Re: Comb Problems
« Reply #8 on: May 05, 2008, 02:35:10 pm »
The only other hive I have is also new and only has about 3 Frames of brood. I think i will just try to find a Replacement Queen, so how would i go about requeening them when they have a queen now.
-Tucker-

Offline buzzbee

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Re: Comb Problems
« Reply #9 on: May 05, 2008, 06:26:24 pm »
Tucker,
If you need a pic attached toa post,forward it to a moderator and tell them which post you would like to attach it to. We would gladly help!!

Offline JP

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Re: Comb Problems
« Reply #10 on: May 05, 2008, 07:19:29 pm »
The only other hive I have is also new and only has about 3 Frames of brood. I think i will just try to find a Replacement Queen, so how would i go about requeening them when they have a queen now.

First off, you need to be 100% certain the queen is a dud. Sometimes they take a lil while to get going. M.B. can prob direct you better on this.

If you have to replace the queen, you will need to go in and catch the dud queen and remove her/kill her. I would do this a day or two before introducing the new, caged queen.

Btw, you have checked with the supplier you got them from right? To see if they would give you a new queen.

The first thing I would do is see how the bees respond to your new queen. Are they biting at her, acting aggressively towards her, or are they trying to tend to her?

You will want to place her in the cage inside the hive for at least a couple of days to allow the bees to accept her. After say 3-4 days you could remove the plug and let the bees eat the candy out of the plugged end and release her.


...JP

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Offline tucker0065

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Re: Comb Problems
« Reply #11 on: May 06, 2008, 03:33:18 am »
OK I called the place i got my Bees today and explained everything and they asked me tons of questions. So they are going to send me a new queen, but since my hive has been w/o new bees for a month I put a whole frame of brood into the hive w/ the bum queen. I will be getting my queen on Friday. To answer the question about how the bees are acting toward the queen, they act like she isn't even there she is just wondering around and sometimes bees will follow her around.I went ahead and took all the drone brood out dont know if i should have but I didn't think they would do anything good for the hive at this point.Thank you all so much.-tucker
-Tucker-

Offline JP

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Re: Comb Problems
« Reply #12 on: May 06, 2008, 10:32:21 am »
OK I called the place i got my Bees today and explained everything and they asked me tons of questions. So they are going to send me a new queen, but since my hive has been w/o new bees for a month I put a whole frame of brood into the hive w/ the bum queen. I will be getting my queen on Friday. To answer the question about how the bees are acting toward the queen, they act like she isn't even there she is just wondering around and sometimes bees will follow her around.I went ahead and took all the drone brood out dont know if i should have but I didn't think they would do anything good for the hive at this point.Thank you all so much.-tucker

I was referring to how they will respond to the new queen. You said your bees replaced the original queen. Your current queen sounds like she is unmated. Bees have a tendancy to ignore virgin queens, not say completely, but mostly. Its a scent thing.


...JP


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Offline tucker0065

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Re: Comb Problems
« Reply #13 on: May 06, 2008, 02:40:10 pm »
No they didn't replace her and niether did the Bees. I did Replace my origonal queen about 3 weeks ago. The queen I have Know Is going to be replaced Friday. I still belive she want mated properly.
-Tucker-